It could be worse. At least I hadn’t rented my wrecker out to someone. The Gull-Able was a flat bottom barge, gunwales lined with segments of old tires, with a square deckhouse and a winch crane. It could do maybe ten knots on its little diesel inboard-outboard drive. Gull Lake bends about fifteen miles north to south and Steamboat Bay is as far south as it goes and we are as far north, with thirty minutes of speed restricted channel between us and the lake. Almost three hours, I figured. So we loaded up some extra gas and Ellie, Frog and I putt-putted out of my service slip at about seven.
Frog said we were cutting it real close. I nodded, but told him I couldn’t get anything more out of this engine and still get there. Ellie would miss some sleep tonight, but then it wasn’t every day that one got a chance to play good Samaritan to some stranded extraterrestrials.
There was a bit of a breeze, but it was still hot as get out. Ellie wanted to take her shirt off, but I told her no, she was getting too old for that. We should have had almost two hours of daylight left, but it was dark as dusk so I put my running lights on. We were just under the bridge when I noticed all sorts of commotion at Bar Harbor. Flashing lights and County Sheriff cars.
“Grandpa!” Ellie shouted, “There’s Kim and Kate’s boat.”
That was it, all right, anchored just a ways offshore and rocking a little more than the waves seemed to justify, I imagined.
“No, it probably just looks like theirs,” I replied. All I needed was for Ellie to see Kate at work.
“I beg to differ,” Frog offered. “I am sure that boat is identical to the one on Kim and Kate’s trailer this morning. I suspect that it is considerably faster than this vessel, and that it could be hired with sufficient monetary inducement.”
“You got that part right, Frog,” I croaked, wondering if Frog understood irony.
“I will make good whatever it costs,” Frog added.
“Are Kim and Kate dancing on the boat?” Ellie asked.
A drop of rain hit me in the face. The runabout would be much more comfortable for what I thought we were in for. Ellie, I decided, was probably old enough to find out a few things. I headed for Kim and Kate’s boat.
“Ellie, about Kim and Kate. I think they’re done dancing tonight.” For the first time I could remember, I wished Ellie had gone to a big city high school; the kind where kids learn this stuff in the locker rooms and don’t have to embarrass their parents. Education at Nisswa Junior High kind of hits the high points and leaves the low points to the imagination. “Uh, you knowsomepeoplehaveboyfriends and girlfriends and wives and husbands to hug and kiss? But not everybody.”
“You haven’t had anyone but me since grandma died. And you don’t hug and kiss me that way.”
“Uh, right. Well, what I’m getting at is like, you know when their motor got broken and Kim and Kate rented a new one. Well some people kind of rent themselves out to people who don’t have anyone else to go out with. They aren’t supposed to, and we’ve got laws against it, but they do it anyway, for money. Now I don’t sit in judgment on the practice, but some people do and they can get very mean about it, so if you like Kim and Kate, you won’t tell anyone, OK?”
“I promise,” Ellie said, very seriously. “It’s like going sixty-five on highway 371, right?”
Kids have big eyes. I should probably have come clean then and there about innumerable other sins and explained that “Big Problem, little law,” wasn’t really the way people should live, and Ellie should do as I say, not as I do, but what I said was: “Whatever.”
We were near enough now for me to use the spotlight.
“Kim, Kate, it’s Karl Karlsson. From the marine service. I have to talk to you.”
“What the hell?” A male voice called out, followed by hushes.
It’s amazing how sounds carry over the water sometimes. There were some thuds and bumps and finally Kim emerged wrapped in a beach towel.
“OK Karlsson, this better be good.”
“Bar Harbor looks like a sheriffs convention.”
She looked back at Bar Harbor and saw the flashing lights. At the same time I saw a sheriffs boat start to untie from the dock. “Damn!” she said. “Kate, come up, we’ve got problems.”
Kate came up and I doused the spotlight. Not quite immediately, I’m afraid.
“Karl? Can you help us?” She asked.
“She’s not—” Ellie started.
“It’s OK, Ellie, it’s an emergency. Kate, I’d like to hire your boat to get us down to Steamboat Bay fast. Your friends could take the wrecker back. I know a dock they can use, real quiet. But we gotta move now.”
“I’ll do it,” she replied without any hesitation. “Come alongside.”
“Oh, God,” Kim groaned.
I nursed the wrecker alongside nice and easy, while Ellie and Kate handled the tie up and transferred equipment. Chores done, Kate smiled and shrugged. “I’ll be right back up.”
Ellie turned to Kim. “Grandpa told me about hiring dates. I think you’re pretty enough that you wouldn’t have to hire anyone if you just met people.”
Kim looked like she was going to choke.
“Ellie!” I barked.
“Ellie,” Kim said quietly. “We didn’t hire them, they hired us. I don’t happen to think it’s wrong when you really need the money, but it’s illegal and it’s something you just don’t talk about, OK?” Ellie nodded seriously. “One more thing I want you to remember, Kate is the best person in the whole world regardless of what anyone says about what she was doing with me, understand?” Another nod. “OK kid; I’ve got to go now.” Kim vanished into the cabin.
The two men came up first, looking embarrassed and lost, while Kim and Kate were having some kind of animated discussion in low tones. I figured I’d better break the ice.
“Karl Karlsson, boys. Sorry to bother you, but it could be worse.” I nodded to the sheriffs boat, which had just turned its engine over and turned on its running lights. “Can you handle this rig?”
“I’m Bill,” the taller one said and offered his hand after he scrambled aboard. He was really just a kid. “I grew up around here, I’ll get her in safe for you.”
“See that yellow light about ten degrees left of the harbor parking lot?”
“Got it.”
“Those people are in Minneapolis for the week. Just tie the Gull-Able up at their dock and you can walk back to Bar Harbor. I’ll pick her up tomorrow. Toss the keys in the deckhouse and lock the door after. I’ve got a spare set.”
“You bet. And thanks.” He shook my hand and went to check out the controls.
Then a big duffel bag hit my deck. I looked up and Kim and Kate had their arms around each other, fully dressed such as it went for them: shorts and tank tops.
“Are you sure?” Kim asked.
“Take it.” Kate insisted. “I want my amateur status back. You go get that M.D. I see what I want and I’m going to go for it.”
“Oh, god, just like that?” Kim stared at Kate until she nodded. “Well, take care, rookie.”
Kate nodded, they kissed, then Kim jumped onto the wrecker and looked at me the way a suspicious mother-in-law might look.
“Make her write, OK?”
“You bet.” Now wasn’t the time to try and figure things out; the sheriff’s boat had its spotlights on and was heading for us in the gathering gloom. “We gotta get going. You guys just drift a bit, lights off, in the dark. They should follow us. Got the shroud, and Frog, Ellie?”
“All on board, Grandpa. Got the ties loose too, except the one I’m holding.”
I could do worse in the granddaughter department. “Good,” I said, and jumped over into Kate’s boat pushing the wrecker away, along with Kate’s checkered past, I gathered. We let them drift about twenty yards in the freshening wind, then I pulled up the anchor and Kate started the engine. Dick had given them a Merc sixty, I saw. Ought to do twenty, twenty-five knots easy with that, maybe thirty.